inventéevsinventerConfusable pair

Which to use

“inventée” and “inventer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,739
“inventée” frequency rank
#6,520
“inventer” frequency rank
24259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inventée inventer
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de inventer. Concevoir, avoir l’idée le premier, de quelque chose de nouveau ayant une utilité pratique (sans concrétisation).

Same sound, different letters: inventée vs inventer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. inventée (VCCVCCVV) and inventer (VCCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
inventée
8 ch
inventer

Same sound, different spelling - inventée / inventer

This is the hard kind. inventée and inventer are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.vɑ̃.te\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inventée is recorded at frequency rank #17,739, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.vɑ̃.te\. inventer is at rank #6,520, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.vɑ̃.te\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 24259, this pair ranks #347,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of inventée vs inventer

Shared letters: eintv. Private to "inventée": é. Private to "inventer": r.

"inventée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV  ·  "inventer" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • inventer ← inevnter · innventer · invenetr · invennter · inventerr · inventre · inventter · invetner

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "inventée" for "inventer" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɛ̃.vɑ̃.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "inventée" or "inventer"?
"inventer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,520 in our French list, against #17,739 for "inventée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "inventée" / "inventer". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "inventée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "inventer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #347,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inventée" and "inventer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inventée vs inventive". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #347,648 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list